Makayla Perry, 3, gives her brother Mark, 5, a kiss on the cheek before he heads to his kindergarten classroom to begin his first day of school at Sam Houston Elementary. Cindeka Nealy/Reporter-Telegram

Makayla Perry, 3, gives her brother Mark, 5, a kiss on the cheek before he heads to his kindergarten classroom to begin his first day of school at Sam Houston Elementary. Cindeka Nealy/Reporter-Telegram

Photo: Cindeka Nealy

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Janet Jimenez talks to her daughter Natalia, 5, who is becoming teary eyed as her mom prepares to leave before the group of kindergartners are dismissed to the classrooms on first day of school Monday at Sam Houston Elementary. Cindeka Nealy/Reporter-Telegram less

Janet Jimenez talks to her daughter Natalia, 5, who is becoming teary eyed as her mom prepares to leave before the group of kindergartners are dismissed to the classrooms on first day of school Monday at Sam ... more

Photo: Cindeka Nealy

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J'akobe Brown, 7, stands with his classmates to say the Pledge of Allegiance, Monday at Sam Houston Elementary. Cindeka Nealy/Reporter-Telegram

J'akobe Brown, 7, stands with his classmates to say the Pledge of Allegiance, Monday at Sam Houston Elementary. Cindeka Nealy/Reporter-Telegram

Photo: Cindeka Nealy

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First day of school brings mixed emotions for students, parents

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For Erica Ochoa, the first day of school was a bittersweet moment.

Her youngest child, Madilyne, started pre-K at DeZavala Elementary, and now her house is empty during the day.

"I was crying and they were pushing me out of the classroom saying, 'Mom, you're embarrassing us,'" she said of dropping her three children off Monday morning.

Ochoa and dozens of other parents waited outside the elementary school Monday afternoon to pick up their children from the first day of school.

Ochoa's fifth-grader, Emily, said she wasn't ready to go back to school, but did enjoy PE class.

Principal Terri Matthews was armed with a megaphone as she and her staff helped students find their rides. Overall, Matthews said the first day of school went smoothly.

Juanita Aguirre was the first car waiting in line and arrived at 2:45 p.m. Though school wasn't dismissed until 3:20 p.m., Aguirre said it was worth sitting in the Texas heat to be there for her granddaughter, Delilah.

For the second-grader, the first day of school was so exciting she woke up at 6:30 a.m. ready to get to school and see her friends, Aguirre said.

With children at DeZavala and Jones elementaries, Sunney Johnson is still trying to work out her pick-up and drop-off routine.

Because of full enrollment in the pre-k classes at Jones Elementary where her second- and third-graders go, her daughter Sarah is attending early childhood classes at DeZavala.

"It's hard because they have to be places at the same time, but they're across town," Johnson said.

Juggling schedules paired with her youngest going to school made for an emotional day, Johnson said.

"I cried and I thought she would cry, but she was the only one in her classroom who didn't cry," Johnson said, noting Sarah was too excited to be wearing light-up shoes, to notice her mom was leaving.

A little after 3 p.m., Sarah came out the door wearing an apple name tag and waited with other pre-k students as their parents checked them out.

Sarah hugged her mom and told her how much fun she had as they walked off holding hands.

Though it isn't easy to send her daughter back, Crystal Blanco said it was easier to let go this year. Her daughter, Destiny, is a first-grader and couldn't sleep Sunday night because she was so excited for school.

"We kept repacking her backpack and choosing which outfit she wanted to wear," Blanco said.